The Phony Mystery of Why "They" Hate Us

What do Barack Obama and Donald Trump have in common? Among other things, they have -- or pretend to have -- no clue why some Muslims hate us. Trump says (I almost typed believes, but I'm not sure anyone, including Trump, knows what he believes) Muslims should be barred from the United States until "until the country's representatives can figure out what's going on."

How to Prevent Terrorism

The key to preventing terrorism: less rocket science, more morality.

Drone War Delusions

We are constantly told that US drones are surgically precise. But any weapon – especially a remote-controlled one – is only as accurate as the intelligence behind it. At least 38 people died before a CIA strike finally killed this man [al-Qaeda #2, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, in Yemen]. Who were the rest? How many lives did we take in the effort to assassinate al-Wuhayshi? How many have we driven into the arms of militants with the 38 others we killed? The secret drone war conceals a mountain of hidden costs, and the idea we can bomb our way out of the problem of terrorism is short-sighted and, ultimately, false.

--Cori Crider of Reprieve, quoted in The Guardian

Op-ed Obama's Willful Foreign-Policy Blindness

Here's my take on Barack Obama's May 23 major foreign-policy address.

For more on the phony nature of the speech and alleged policy changes, see William Saletan's unmaking.

Op-ed: Drone Trust the Government

My latest op-ed, "Drone Trust the Government," discusses the basic reason to reject the government's policy of drone warfare.

Latest Op-Ed

America's Drone Terrorism by Sheldon Richman

All Empires Crumble

From the "Sign of the Times" Dept., courtesy of the Wall Street Journal:

Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.

The U.S. government says it will fix the problem, but my money would be on the leap-frogging hackers scattered around the world.

By the way, we should stop the equating enemies of the U.S. occupation forces with enemies of the American people.